Wage bill, others on end-of-the-year agenda in Trenton

The full Assembly met Monday for its last scheduled voting session of the year to consider a range of legislation, including the Democratic push to raise the minimum wage.

Several Senate committees also held hearings in advance of the Christmas holiday.

The question of whether to raise the state's minimum wage to $8.25 an hour took one step closer to being put directly to voters after the Assembly approved a proposed constitutional amendment Monday.

The measure, championed by Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver, D-Essex, is meant to sidestep an expected veto by Governor Christie of a minimum wage bill the Legislature sent to his desk earlier this month.

Christie has criticized provisions in the bill that would subject the minimum wage to an-nual cost of living increases and said the move would hurt the state's economy, which is reeling from the effects of superstorm Sandy.

Oliver, who has long championed raising the minimum wage, said in a statement that raising the minimum wage could boost the state's economy by increasing the spending power of poorer New Jerseyans.

The amendment passed on a largely party-line basis, and the Legislature would have to pass it again next year before it could be put to a referendum.

Farm preservation

The Assembly approved a series of bills that would direct more than $80 million to farmland preservation efforts across New Jersey.

The move allocates the last money raised for such projects through a 2009 bond. It would provide $38 million for county planning efforts, as well as $16 million to towns to purchase farmland and $4 million to non-profits for preservation projects.

The four measures, which passed unanimously, would give Bergen County a $1 million planning grant, though most of the funds were allocated to South Jersey projects.

Similar measures are pending before the state Senate.

Language targeted

A measure sponsored by Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, that would eliminate language in state laws that disparage people with developmental, cognitive or psychiatric disabilities unanimously cleared the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee Monday.

A similar bill sponsored by Assemblyman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, D-Englewood, cleared the Assembly unanimously earlier this month and came out of a report issued last year by the New Jersey Law Revision Commission.

The measure now heads to the full Senate.

Pesticides, children

The Senate Environment and Energy Committee approved a bill sponsored by Sen. Jennifer Beck, R-Monmouth, that aims to reduce children's exposure to pesticides.

The legislation would ban pesticide use at child care centers and at schools serving kindergartners through eighth-graders.